Austin Chamber and South by Southwest Interactive open call for 2016 A-List nominations

February 25, 2016, AUSTIN, TX — Today, the Austin Chamber of Commerce’s Innovate Austin initiative and South by Southwest Interactive announced that companies named to the Austin A-List have reached nearly $1 billion ($987.84M) in funding and exit proceeds to date. Since its founding, 19 A-List companies have seen successful exits via acquisition or initial public offering. The nomination period for the 2016 Austin A- List officially opens today.

Now in its sixth year, the A-List continues to increase visibility and recognition of Austin’s most promising, cutting-edge innovators and high-growth startups to help recruit additional venture capital investment and top talent to Austin. Any scalable, high-impact, pre-IPO startup is eligible to apply. The nomination period runs through Friday, April 8. The application is available online at http://innovation.austinchamber.com/alist/.

“We are excited to raise the profile of our region’s most innovative companies that help cultivate investment and attract the next generation of entrepreneurs and talent,” said Michele Skelding, SVP of Global Technology and Innovation, Austin Chamber. “The Austin region continues to increase its innovation pipeline through a steady stream of funding deals, nationally renowned accelerator programs, and one of the top angel networks in the country. Previous A-List companies have set the bar high, we look forward to recognizing this year’s leading innovators and high-growth catalysts that continue to keep Austin a booming, creative tech hub.”

The 2016 A-List honorees will be revealed at an invite-only awards ceremony on May 12th, featuring remarks from SXSW Interactive Director Hugh Forrest, as well as networking opportunities with key venture capital investors, angels, startup companies, entrepreneurs, innovators and other VIP guests.

“The Austin A-List serves the vital function of identifying many of the city’s most promising startups,” said Hugh Forrest, Director, South by Southwest Interactive. “The competition also catalogues the vast, robust, and dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem that has emerged in our city. In short, the Austin A-List provides a real-life roadmap for finding the innovative thinkers and doers who our community continues to both foster and attract.”

Consistent with the 2015 A-List selection process, 2016 A-List awardees will be recognized in the following investment stages based upon current capital raised:

• Emerging (Early/Seed Stage) - Raised under $1 million;

• Growth (Mid-Stage) - Raised $1 million to $10 million; and

• Scale (Later Stage) - Raised above $10 million.

Below is the complete listing of companies that made the list for A-List 2015:

Emerging (Early/Seed Stage) - Received funding less than $1M or Under $1M in revenue:

Everfest: Everfest is a global calendar and search engine for festivals, finding nearby music, film, food, drink, art, sports and culture festivals that connect users with rich experiences.

Bitfusion.io: Bitfusion implements unique software technologies to expose the benefits of hardware accelerators such as FPGAs to boost application performance by up to 100x—transparently, automatically, and without application rewrite.

Green & Grow Inc.: Green & Grow Inc. develops and commercializes new agricultural products based on non-living, non-toxic, microbe derived by-products that have been specifically formulated to significantly improve many crops.

ENTvantage Dx: ENTvantage Diagnostics, Inc. provides Primary Care and ENT physicians with timely information on the cause of ear, nose and throat illnesses with rapid, in-office diagnostic tests.

Growth (Mid-Stage) - Received funding between $1M-$10M or Revenue $1M-$20M:

CognitiveScale: CognitiveScales’s Cognitive Clouds systems source, analyze, and interpret all types of structured and unstructured data and context signals—while learning and reprogramming themselves continuously to deliver better results.

Neogenis Labs: Neogenis’ patented nitric oxide nutraceuticals & nutritionals have revolutionized cardiovascular care and sports nutrition, and promote overall health and wellbeing by utilizing the best nature and science have to offer.

Illumitex: Illumitex has radically transformed traditional LED design with the creation of LED lighting that emits a uniform, highly precise beam directly from the source, opening the world to more versatile—and energy efficient—lighting applications than ever before imagined.

EPIC: EPIC creates grass-fed animal-based protein bars, made from a variety of humanely-treated, hormone and antibiotic-free meat, that contain between 10–16 grams of protein, making them nutrient dense and healthy.

SparkCognition: SparkCognition is the world's first Cognitive Security Analytics company that develops cutting-edge Machine Learning, AI algorithms, which provide the intelligence to uncover trends, threats, and anomalies, and provide accurate remediation.

Scale (Later Stage) - Received funding above $10M or Revenue $20M+:

SpareFoot: SpareFoot is the technology and thought leader of the self-storage industry, providing the simplest and best marketplace by organizing every storage facility in one simple interface online.

Silvercar: Silvercar completely reimagined car rental, eliminating the need for counters, paperwork, lines or hassle while traveling. The Company is delivering the industry’s most innovative products, the most professional concierge service, and the finest fleet of cars anywhere.

Volusion: Volusion, LLC provides best-in-class e-commerce solutions to empower the success of all business types, from startups to large enterprises.

About the Austin Chamber

The mission of the Austin Chamber of Commerce is to provide leadership that facilitates the creation of a prosperous regional economy and effective advocacy for its more than 3,000 members. For more information about the Austin Chamber of Commerce visit AustinChamber.com.

About SXSW Interactive